Camp showering.... SOLVED!

Thought some people might want to see this. I've brought a 2 gallon pump sprayer the past few years Coachella Official mist Thread for misting our campsite. I've always known that I could use the original wand that came with the sprayer for a kind of pressurized shower, but the wand was long and the tubing was short making it awkward to actually have spraying down on you from high above. Not to mention I'd occasionally want to move the wand around to get closer to the extra dirty parts, and again, difficult with the shape and length of the wand. So I've always just used one of those solar shower bags instead. Not as much pressure since it uses gravity, but more volume. And easier to hang from above (we'd put the solar shower on top of the EZ-UP).

This year, I wanted to get one of those tall shower tents for more privacy. Bought this shower tent and was pleasantly surprised that it's 8 feet tall, but (not the shower tent's fault) was dissapointed that once I hung the solar shower in there, with the full length of the bag and then the tubing (which I had already cut extremely short) the showerhead was by my chest. Not exactly what I had in mind. I want that stream ABOVE my head!

So to the point - I decided that I was going to modify my pump sprayer for use with the shower. Quick trip to Home Depot, some tubing/clamps/o-rings, and this is what I came up with. Basically I chopped the wand in half, attached the two halves with tubing, and now I have a sprayer that has plenty of tubing to reach the ceiling of my shower tent with the actual tank on the floor. I also made sure I had enough tubing that, with it still attached to the ceiling, I can grab it and pull it down to my body to spray directly on the extra dirty parts. I also unscrewed the tip of the sprayer nozzle and got the showerhead from the original solar shower to fit in there.

I've found that I actually prefer to still use the original sprayer nozzle (which you can see removed, laying next to the modified showerhead) over the modified showerhead, because it provides more pressure. The modified showerhead goes through more volume of water, but basically comes out at the same slow rate as it originally did using just gravity. The original sprayer nozzle is much better for pulling down to your body and spray specific parts down. I might use the showerhead attachment when I have it overhead, but definitely will use the original attachment when I remove it from the ceiling to get close. In the picture below you can see the showerhead attachment is attached, but again, I'm all about the higher pressure sprayer nozzle. It literally takes maybe 10 seconds to swap between the two attachments.

So yeah, now I have a private, pressurized shower that is actually overhead. And you can simply reach up and grab the nozzle and pull it down to your body, all the way down to your feet even, then clip it back up top. Some of you may think this is a bit overboard but then you probably haven't done car camping with a bunch of girls that hate the long lines of the shower trailers.

Last edited by ManImCool; 03-27-2014 at 09:08 AM.
Reason: I suck at spelling

Re: Camp showering.... SOLVED!

Originally Posted by Ron808

This seems too much work when all you need to do is wait in line and wait for your turn.

This is a very awesome idea nevertheless.

This may be far less work and time than some people think it took. Even if you didn't have the pump already, minus travel time, you could go to Home Depot, buy the required stuff, and assemble at home in under an hour. May take some people longer but the amount of time it took me was easily far less of a hassle than the payoff of being able to shower whenever I want, peak times or whenever, and for people in my group to do the same.

Originally Posted by Sheldorrr

Awesome idea, is there any way you can collect the water that falls so that less grey water ends up on the polo fields?

I suppose you could put the entire thing over a kiddy pool...but water will evaporate much faster than you think in that desert sun. As far as worrying about putting soapy dirt into the ground, well, the grass is going to be destroyed anyways.